Recycling pick-ups need sorting
Wednesday 31st October 2007, 11:44AM GMT.
Last Tuesday I was faced with a dilemma: shall I put out the old refuse bin or the shiny new one? I looked out to check what the rest of the road had opted for.
Some had decided on the old bin, some on the new bin, some hadn’t put out either, and one hopeful soul had produced both.
I rang customer services and a polite young man informed me that our collection day is now Friday and that I could find this information on the calendar.
“Haven’t had one,” I replied. So he promised to send me one. Great.
On the Thursday the calendar arrived.
It tells me that our collection date is Monday. I consulted neighbours. One said she was still in the dark and the other one, who like me had spoken to customer services, had been told that Friday was our day. She has now received a calendar that opts for Friday.
Will I be the only person on the road having my bin emptied on a Monday?
The dilemma reminded me of a rather disparaging letter in the local press recently.
It listed all the measures taken by the “wise” council to inform the “simple minded” public of the arrangements. It ended with the words “what more can we do?”.
I would like to tell them what they can do – sort themselves out.
And whilst in “grumpy old woman” mode, I would like to ask why on earth we were given lovely new recycling boxes for newspapers when we already have them?
How much did that cost, I (and many, many others) would like to know?
Sheila Ellis, Shrewsbury
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answer two boxes for recycling ie one etc being the old one . why do people seem to have a problem with it all? i left mine out last week a new day items gone, recycled items today a week later items gone, including papaer in my old box as i had filled up my new box . whay make life difficult use your brain and think for yourself.
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Completely agree… “what more can we do?”, indeed, how about getting the leafets delivered with the bins, like you Sheila, we never had one either. What a communications disaster – the irony is the council seem to think they’ve done a good job of communicating the arrangements and it’s the dumb publics fault, well they haven’t – perhaps it’s the dump council’s fault?
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Andrew Finch said ‘why make life difficult use your brain and think for yourself’
A bit harsh – if it is so very obvious to you how this system should work and you can guarantee a fail-safe method of communicating this to people, with no come back, then why dont you ‘use your brain’ and work for the council, seeing as you so obviously are far more superior than the rest of us.
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Hate to admit it, but I agree with Andrew Finch.Common sense and a little bit of patience and things always get sorted
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happy days, Hate to admit it?? behave.
BLUE EYES , look most people have sorted it, the amount of people in S&A who have had trouble is very very low and more than likely it was there fault .
As for working for the council, being an employee is not me any more the world of selfemployment is where i am if you make a mistake i pay for it .
If i worked for the council and people made mistakes such as leaving the wrong bin out etc id make them take it to the recycling depot themselves they would soon work it out.
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Surely the whole process was to encourage recycling. Annoying people through a complete lack of communication is hardly the way to get the town on side. someone was paid to communicate this service to the public and clearly did not do their job properly, collective common sense or not. And to add to the issue of cost, with the pollution caused by the
manufacturing of plastics was it necessary to provide a second box for newspaper?
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In reply to A. Finch…Firstly, perhaps you could let the less omniscient amongst us know how your obvious vast stores of common sense helped you foresee which day of the week your refuse/recycling bin was going to be emptied.
Secondly, I don’t think that you appreciated that the main point of my grouse was not with the badly organised council, but the rather sneering letter written by the council employee.
Thirdly, we have managed for some time now to put two weeks worth of The Times, Sunday Times, Shrews. Chronicle,Shropshire Star, Ad. Mag, Junk mail, old Refuse and Recycling Calendars (when we were lucky enough to have them) into one green box. WE DID NOT NEED THE NEW BLUE ONE. Regards.
P.S. I see that an article in the
`Chronicle` today states that calendars have been distributed to every household in the borough. THEY HAVE NOT!!!!!!
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The council employee complained (SNEERING LETTER ??)that some ie general public had got it wrong, they had ,most of it was the general publics fault and as ive said on other forums sack the council employee who never checked the calanders for mistakes as it was a major mistake .If the odd calander was not delivered it was a little mistake we all make them . As for the extra box im sure many will use it and your gripe about it was a little petty .
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I do not consider that my `gripe` concerning the waste of ratepayers` money providing every household in the borough with an unnecessary blue plastic box is petty, neither is the point concerning pollution that was made by R.T.Hulk.
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if we want to be realy enviromently friendly our box should be made of cardboard not plastic,but people would not have that plus it rains .
It was only a waste of tax payers money if the extra box is not used i would say 99% of households will use it so it was a petty gripe on your part .
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My final word on the matter….drive through a neighbourhood on recycling day as I did today,the households putting out more than one paper box could be counted on the fingers of on hand!
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well use it for something else then for god sake do you need to be told every thing ? pop a few holes in it and use it as a wormery .put more bottles tin etc in they the council will take it .
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it has to be said that the new system is leading to much more recycling – maybe this is why the men are struggling – but this should be seen as a good thing – where i live in ditherington, people never used to recycle, now the street is lined with boxes on boxe day, so surely this is the point, whether you like the system or not it is working as intended because more recycling is happening
Surely even a grumpy old women can accept this is a good thing??
My advice – stop winging and recycle more!
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I have had no problems with my new bins and boxes!
I think it is great that all members of the borough are now given the opportunity to recycle.
Is it that people would rather find faults than read the information provided by the council. We were also not delivered a calendar initially, but one quick phone call and it was resolved and we have had no further problems.
Get over it any way – its only a bin!
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ITS ONLY A BIN BUT TRY LIVING WITH A MONTH OF SMELLY REFUSE IN YOUR HOUSE, WE PAY FOR IT TO BE COLLECTED NOW THEY CANT EVEN DO THAT EVERY WEEK, WHERE DOES MY TWO THOUSAND POUNDS A YEAR COUNCIL TAX GO?? IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES WHERE REFUSE COLLECTION IS PRIVATE IT COSTS ABOUT 30-60 POUNDS PER ANNUM FOR A COLLECTION, NOT £2,000.
WE ARE BEING SWINDLED BY THESE GRUBBY POLITIANS SPENDING ALL OUR MONEY ON THEATRES AND NOT ON BASIC SERVICE PROVISION.
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ITS GOOD IF PEOPLE ARE RECYCLING MORE
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surely if more people are recycling then this is a good thing,then there is no need for regular rubbish collections, the system makes sense to me, people should read their calenders more, its all self explanatory
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I find the blue box really useful as putting it all in one box was doing my back in. Now I can spread the load which is far safer. Most of my street are now using both boxes whereas before all the changes just 4 or 5 houses ever bothered to reycle anything at all – some of the larger families have even got extra boxes now!.
I had a moan at the council a while back and was shocked to discover that only £52 per household per annum is spent on waste and recycling – that works out at 66p per collection for the three collections over a two week period – hardly a rip off! The rest of the money seems to go to the County Council, Police Force and Fire Brigade – SABC are just collecting on their behalf. People should inform themselves before going off half-cocked and blaming the council for wasting money – if it is being wasted it is not being wasted by the waste department who I think are giving a good service with the funds they have available.
The new system is a good thing and the leaflet seemed pretty self explanatory to me. If you don’t understand it then phone the council and get the info you need don’t just use message boards to air your ill informed whingings.
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i agree a small blue box for paper is better for my back and think of the crews doing all that lifting, Clearly the scheme is well thought through and IS working for 99% of folk, this is a huge achievement for all involved and i must say fair play well done to the council for finally puting some green policies into action
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